PHILADELPHIA — With an ongoing four-straight losing streak shadowing their every move and a three-game California road trip looming like storm clouds on the horizon, the sliding Flyers essentially had to look at Tuesday night’s visit by the Detroit Red Wings as a must-win opportunity. Luckily for them, the real Red Wings didn’t, or actually couldn’t show up for what otherwise might have been a nasty spoiler party in Philadelphia.

Lost to injuries are Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, only the Red Wings’ top two point producers. Capable co-star Johan Franzen was also out of the lineup, and starting goalie Jimmy Howard, just coming off an injury, started his comeback by sitting on the bench at Wells Fargo Center.

But as history has shown so often, luck doesn’t win hockey games. On this night, the Flyers would have to make their own breaks to snap the slump, and to do that coach Craig Berube had to break up their lines.

His deck shuffling not-so coincidentally resulted in Scott Hartnell scoring two goals and assisting on Claude Giroux’s third-period score to help lock down a 5-0 victory that for the Flyers will serve as a vital parting gift.

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So it’s off to the West Coast, where their next three games are against the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. Combined home record: 56-11-8.

Forward...how?

Essentially, the Flyers answered that question with their play against this depleted Red Wings team.

“It’s going to be a tough road trip,” Jake Voracek said. “Obviously, it’s three tough teams. But I think we played a pretty good game today...It was a big two points. We got back on track, and we have to make sure we bring the same intensity on the road.”

Following the script they publicly proclaimed they needed to play during the 2-5-2 slide they were on coming into the game, the Flyers were better at keeping the Red Wings out of their zone and they counterattacked in the neutral zone with effectiveness.

Of course, it took a while to do that. They spent much of the early part of the first period again playing havoc hockey with the Red Wings buzzing around Steve Mason. But that changed when Hartnell, still bothered by a severe left foot bruise but finding himself back in his old haunt next to Giroux and Voracek, tipped a Kimmo Timonen shot between the feet of Detroit goalie Jonas Gustavsson at 13:42 of the first.

Then 8:08 into the second, Giroux led a 3-on-2 break and slid a pinpoint cross-ice pass to Hartnell, who slammed it home for a 2-0 lead.

“I think in the second period tonight it kicked in a little bit for us,” said Giroux, whose three points on the night got him to 50 on the season, after getting just 7 through the first 15 games. “We were making plays that in the last few games we weren’t making.”

Mason (33 saves) was called upon to make a huge save on Luke Glendening, and Kyle Quincey’s follow-up on the rebound bounced away off the crossbar. But that came after Adam Hall put home a backhander at 11:02 for a 3-0 lead.

Forgive Mason if he still didn’t consider this game a work of art by his team.

“These games are building blocks,” said the young goalie who now has 21 career shutouts, two this season. “Over the course of the season you’re going to have ups and downs, it’s just a matter of how you come out of it. This is just a small step in a bigger picture. That’s the way I’m going to take a look at it.”

If he still seems to be casting just a bit of a jaundiced eye, perhaps the recent slide which helped Mason to four losses and a 4.57 goals-against average over his six previous outings had taken a toll. There’s no question, however, that his team had gotten better as the game went on. He hopes the improvement trend continues on the road.

“I think we still have to do a better job of getting out of our zone,” Mason said. “Cleaner breakouts to take the stress off our defensive zone play and make winning hockey games easier. Tonight a lot of good things were done and we should take that into consideration for the road trip coming up.”

Yeah, good luck with that.

Of course, this three-game trip would have looked like a much more daunting challenge if they had departed with a five-game losing streak in tow instead of a five-goal rout of what used to be the Red Wings.

“When we play those three teams that we have coming up, we have to make sure we (play) our best hockey,” Mason said, “because if we don’t have it out there we’re not going to win those hockey games.”

Perhaps that outlook didn’t seem so cloudy to the Flyers in the third period, as they essentially dominated on both ends of the ice to put away the Wings. Giroux made it 4-0 at 10:22, converting off a pass from Hartnell, who has 21 points in his last 21 games. Sean Couturier scored with 3:51 left in regulation for just desserts.

“We needed to get our confidence back and our confidence high going into that trip,” Hartnell said. “I think our guys, from the first line through the fourth line, we played hard. I think we were quick, I think our breakouts were great. Our centermen did a good job supporting our wingers and our (defensemen) came together...It was our best game in probably a couple of weeks.”